1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of data processing systems. More particularly, this invention relates to the field of malware protection, such as, for example, protection against computer viruses, worms, Trojans, banned files, banned words, banned images etc, upon a network of connected computers.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is known to provide malware protection mechanisms for individual computers. Such malware protection mechanisms include on-access and on-demand malware scanners operating on client computers, mail gateway scanners, web traffic scanners and the like. These malware protection mechanisms are generally effective at detecting items of malware at their point location.
As computer networks have become more widespread and complex, and the threats posed by newly developed types of malware more sophisticated and potentially damaging, it is important that malware protection is systematically and thoroughly implemented on a computer network. In many ways, the malware protection of a network is only as good as the weakest link in that protection. In order to assist with this, it is known to provide products, such as ePolicy Orchestrator produced by Network Associates, Inc, that serve among other things to manage across a computer network the security and malware protection settings used by the various computers constituting that computer network.
Given the threat posed by malware, such as the well known damaging effects of mass-mailing computer viruses, measures that can improve the effectiveness with which such threats can be dealt with are strongly advantageous.